Indonesia police make huge New Year’s Eve marijuana bust

An Indonesian policeman walks amongst bricks of tightly-wrapped cannabis during a press conference in Jakarta on January 4, 2018. Indonesian authorities have seized 1.3 tonnes of marijuana and arrested six people in a major drug bust on New Year’s Eve, police said on January 4. / AFP PHOTO / MAMAN

Indonesian authorities have seized 1.3 tonnes of marijuana and arrested six people in a major drug bust on New Year’s Eve, police said Thursday.

Authorities confiscated the drugs at a port near Lampung, on the southern tip of Sumatra island.

The bricks of tightly-wrapped cannabis — which were displayed at a press conference Thursday — were found hidden inside several vehicles waiting to cross to West Java, local media reported.

Six people were arrested in connection with the haul, but police have not provided a street value for the seized drugs.

West Jakarta police chief Idham Aziz said drug-related cases in West Java — Indonesia’s most populous province — were increasing.

“Narcotics cases between 2015-2017 are up 11.8 percent and the victims are mostly children and teenagers,” Aziz said at a press conference.

Indonesia has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world, including capital punishment for traffickers.

Authorities, including President Joko Widodo, have declared the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country is in the grips of a “narcotics emergency”, although accurate data on drug use is notoriously difficult to find.